Built by locals seeking shelter on the mountains, far from the coast and the Lombard invasions, the monastery is enveloped by a Ligurian landscape of steep, wooded hills and archetypical lush hillside terraces.

The Cinque Terre (Five Lands) are extraordinarily scenic seaside villages which look today as they did thousands of years ago. Built into the mountainside, the fishing villages cling to a rocky coastline, on cliffs that drop precipitously into the sea. The Cinque Terre forms a natural park of sublime beauty (cars are banned from the towns). An ancient footpath known as the Sentiero Azzurro, offers breathtaking views. The trail traces the coast along a narrow, vertiginous path through vineyards and olive groves that link one village to another.

Vernazza, one of the towns, boasts a spectacular bay; its setting highlighted by a seaside promenade and piazza. Green-shuttered houses line the streets that are connected by steep stairways A walk down the hillside reveals quaint stone bridges, grape vines, sepia-toned houses with sloping slate roofs and terraced gardens filled with fragrant lemon trees.

Close by is the seaside town of Portovenere, at the end of the rocky slopes of the Gulf of Spezia. A romantic village of narrow streets and richly colored row houses, the marina bobs with toylike fishing boats, its church of black and white banded marble presenting a handsome contrast to the blue sea. The English poet Byron once lived in town and often spent time in a cave named Arpaia. Portovenere faces the island of Palmaria, an intriguing locale of grottoes and sea stacks.